Middle East Booming: Emirates to Hire 4,500 More Staff Starting April

[Golden Falcon]

The only thing the middle east is good for is to take a dump in.

Either you never worked over here, or had a bad experience while doing so....sad really, 2 decades here, and no complaints...ok the local driving habits are peculiar....other than that, it's been a good run..life is what you make it..

 

[Freight Dog]

Middle East is a trap for sure. Once you get here, it's pretty tough to leave, especially the longer you stay. It's called the golden handcuffs... especially if you work for a good company.

 

[Dumb Pilot]

Middle East is a trap for sure. Once you get here, it's pretty tough to leave, especially the longer you stay. It's called the golden handcuffs... especially if you work for a good company.

That is the case for any job abroad, not only the ME, specially the older you are when you make the jump abroad and the better the life style at your home base, the more likely that it will be for a very long time or even permanent.

 

[airgator]

Life is too short to spend it living in the ME

 

[Freight Dog]

Life is too short to spend it living in the ME

Keep telling everyone that. Also encourage your friends to never set foot here, UAE particularly... I like our wages being kept where they are and going higher.

 

[airgator]

I do tell everyone that, especially people with wives, girlfriends and children. Everyone always asks me what Dubai's like because it looks so nice when you see computer generated pictures on tv of artists' renditions of what a project will look like in the future. It's a pig with a lot of lipstick on it. What do you like about living in the ME so much just out of curiosity? I never became a pilot for the money, I do make a decent living but if it was all about the money I'd just get a real job in finance. I'd love to hear from guys about why they like it so much.

 

[fareview]

Well seeing as you asked,....

1st 100k tax free ( I get paid substantially more than that )

On top of that the Company pays my mortgage (covers a loan worth 2.3m DHS)

Chauffeur drive to work

Free dry cleaning of free uniform after every trip (it's the little things in life boys& girls... ; >. )

No endless years of reserve at the bottom of a list. Only one month a year of reserve for everyone .

Rapid opportunity to progress in Training, CRM, HR, Fleet etc.


Caviar & filet mignon while in flight every day if I want it.... (sea bass is excellent from 1st)

Cabin crew who check on Flt deck twice an hour for food and drinks ( in fact the first thing they do after safety checks on the ground is take your coffee order and hand you your sambos, fruit and chocolate to keep you going for an hour until they warm the ovens) by the way, they all smile, are young and friendly
(assuming you treat them with respect)

Six weeks vacay per year,

LHS seat 777 after 3+ years

No idiot gang bangers in the mall...extremely safe city

29 weeks of bonus in the last four years

29% increase in salary in last four years

Working for a carrier that has NEVER furloughed

...that has made money every year bar one in the last 26 years.

Excellent private education paid for by the Co.

BUT most importantly working with a great group of professionals from 130+ different nationalities whose answer to every global headache....IS NOT..." we should just Nuke em sons of beaches""


Most diverse route network of any carrier in the world

Cash per diem on check in to hotels

Good (to great hotels)

Great social life (actually too good - gotta slow that stuff down!)


Plenty more ...and yes there are Cons... But I only know of two guys who have gone back to the US to ytake up their airline position back there...one at Frontier and he promptly called EK back and asked to return...the other I hadn't heard .


Bottom line it's what you make of it...we went all in and have really enjoyed the ride.

Good luck to all whatever your road in life...

Right...off the Westin Beach Club for sundowners, then the Steakhouse at the Habtoor, followed by Comedy night at my favorite watering hole.

Tomorrow night is kids movie night at the Dubai Polo Club pool (EK pilots get free access to above and many others) always a laugh and I can take a run at the hair o' the back will have bitten me tonight..I do enjoy sitting in the pool there having a frosty one of a hot summers evening :0

Cheers!

; >

fv

 

[v1valarob]

I never became a pilot for the money, I do make a decent living but if it was all about the money I'd just get a real job in finance. I'd love to hear from guys about why they like it so much.

Gotta love an attitude like that. No wonder our wages are headed in the wrong direction.

 

[Dumb Pilot]

Great post FV, it just amazes me as to how many of my former co workers ask me all the time, "when are you coming back to work here" they just cannot comprehend that I am perfectly happy working abroad and that I have cero desire to do the rat race domestic on a 737, I get questions like "aren't you afraid for your health?" or "aren't you tired of the food?" those sort of questions coming from what are considered to be educated people, it is just mind blowing to me.

 

[airgator]

Gotta love an attitude like that. No wonder our wages are headed in the wrong direction.

Please, obviously you missed my point. I'm referring to all the people who leave the U.S. to chase the $ even though they are giving up their personal freedoms. I would never subject my wife or girlfriend to living according with U.A.E, Bahrain, Qatar etc laws. You can jerk each other off about the catering or having a driver pick you up. I've spend much time at friends' "villas" in Dubai & Abu Dhabi and it ain't what it's cracked up to be. I DH on EK alot and it seems like every American, Brit, Canadian, Aussie, or Kiwi I meet is looking to get out. Like I said, life's to short to move a family and raise them in the ME. I'm not saying there aren't good expat jobs outside of the U.S., I just laugh at what people perceive Dubai & Abu Dhabi to be like that haven't been there.